I
In recent days yours truly has been suggesting that partition should be an option for that tormented corner of Europe, The Artist (Country?) Formerly Known as Ukraine, where I had the privilege to serve as a U.S. "public diplomacy" diplomat in the early 90s.
This modest "partition' proposal was made in an 2005 totally unacademic piece, much of it based on my experience as a U.S. FSO (Foreign Service officer) in that post-Soviet space, soon after it (with its exceptional, talented people for whom I have the utmost admiration and respect) became "independent."
This geographical space is, after all, an essential part of Europe that gave birth to the great poet Shevchenko and the great writer Gogol both of whom, by the way, extended their intellectual horizons far beyond the provincial area where they were born.
My 2005 piece did not deal with economics, as I am not an economist and have strong doubts about how the "dismal science" explains human behavior, especially in its mathematical expression.
My academic deformation is that of a historian who "specialized" in Russian history, specifically in an utterly "irrelevant" subject, the horticultural interests of a late eighteenth-century provincial nobleman from Tula province who introduced tomatoes and potatoes on his modest estate not far from Moscow. He had to convince his serfs to do so, and evidently did, as he claims in his voluminous memoirs. He also tried to cure his serfs, or so he says, of hemorrhoids by means of electricity. No, Benjamin Franklin was not present.
And, as a U.S. diplomat serving mostly in Eastern Europe (and I am thankful to the U.S. diplomatic corps for allowing an "eccentric" in its ranks), I dealt with "frivolous" matters -- press and cultural affairs. It certainly kept me -- and most important, the U.S. taxpayer paying for diplomatic gig -- out of trouble. But I hope I amused my local interlocutors, never assuming that I would USA-zap their "hearts and minds."
I am, quite frankly, unable to understand most articles on economics. And please don't ask me what "quantitative easing" is.
So, may I plead, take the below remarks with a ton of salt.
II
The partition of Ukraine -- into west and east -- may, indeed, make economic sense (I think I am being serious here).
The western half of the country (no, I will not provide a strict delineation -- that will be for seasoned negotiators to figure out) would benefit from real investments from its more prosperous neighbors (Poland especially comes to mind; but don't forget Scandinavia), as opposed to bureaucratic handouts from the EU and USAID -- organizations which aren't really concerned about the "bottom line," but fulfilling quotas/directives from their government masters.
Can EU bureaucrats save "Ukraine"? No, I will not stoop to quoting a vulgar, pushy American diplomat regarding the EU regarding the current Ukrainian crisis. But it does say something about the U.S. and EU "cooperating successfully" in Ukraine. As for USAID? Think of its "triumphs" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Too many triumphs (I mean disasters) to document by links.
Now to my main point:
Savvy entrepreneurs from the "new" Eastern Europe and the equally entrepreneurial descendants of the Vikings/Varangians (remember, they're the ones who supposedly founded "Ukraine" in the 9th century)
would see REAL MONEY TO BE MADE in western Ukraine. That area has all the key elements: not only educated young people eager to improve their lives, but a population that longs for a comfortable, "Western-style" life. In other words, WILLING CONSUMER/EMPLOYEES -- the essential key to economic investment/success -- for all parties involved. This would be therapy -- without shock.
As for eastern "Ukraine," with its antiquated industries (think Detroit), it would "enjoy" subsidies from an economically absurd Putin-Russia oh-so-eager to maintain its "major global power" role (read: Vladimir the Great's rule) -- which it defines, in many anachronistic ways, by the amount of territory it "controls." Such handouts would keep that section of what is known as Ukraine "happy" for several years. The oft-repeated bons mots from Soviet days, "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work" would apply.
McDonald's Brezhnev-style sausages (and, to be up-to-date, maybe cell-phones) would be a-plenty -- for a couple of years, or maybe less than a decade or so. But then, not too long after initial "Me-I'm russkii" euphoria in, say, Donetsk and other "Russian" spaces -- and here I turn from economics to "geopolitics" -- eastern "Ukraine" would note how prosperous western "Ukraine" has become (think East/West Germany).
And then, I bet you, the eastern part of a European space ("Ukraine") would turn "west." It would turn west: Why?
Because people living in that "eastern" space (like those living in the "western space") are smart and exceptionally tough and realistic, given all they've gone through in their history, much of which due to the "governments,""democratic" or not, that brutalized them for centuries.
No matter what language these people speak, no matter what "ethnicity" they "belong" to, the people living in what is known as Ukraine, a corner of our small planet earth that is so important to humanity, aspire for a better life.
Like all of us who like a warm shower in a decent bathroom.
Image from, with caption, Foundation of Kiev, 482